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41 " It was a strange staging for death, for the woman on the high bed was dying. Slowly, fighting every inch of the way with a grim tenacity, but indubitably dying. Her vital ardour had sunk below the mark from which it could rise again, and was now ebbing as water runs from a little crack in a pitcher. "
― John Buchan , The Path Of The King
42 " I'm an economical soul, and if I'm going to be hanged I want a good stake for my neck. "
― John Buchan , Greenmantle (Richard Hannay #2)
43 " He felt singularly light-hearted, and the immediate cause was his safety razor. A week ago he had bought the thing in a sudden fit of enterprise, and now he shaved in five minutes, where before he had taken twenty, and no longer confronted his fellows, at least one day in three, with a countenance ludicrously mottled by sticking-plaster. "
― John Buchan , Huntingtower (Dickson McCunn, #1)
44 " I was not a murderer, but I had become an unholy liar, a shameless impostor, and a highwayman with a marked taste for expensive motor-cars. "
― John Buchan , The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1)
45 " I had a fine prospect of the whole ring of moorland. I saw the car speed away with two occupants, and a man on a hill pony riding east. I judged they were looking for me, and I wished them joy of their quest. "
46 " About six in the evening I came out of the moorland to a white ribbon of road which wound up the narrow vale of a lowland stream. As I followed it, fields gave place to bent, the glen became a plateau, and presently I had reached a kind of pass where a solitary house smoked in the twilight. The road swung over a bridge, and leaning on the parapet was a young man. He was smoking a long clay pipe and studying the water with spectacled eyes. In his left hand was a small book with a finger marking the place. Slowly he repeated— As when a Gryphon through the wilderness With winged step, o'er hill and moory dale Pursues the Arimaspian. He jumped round as my step rung on the keystone, and I saw a pleasant sunburnt boyish face. 'Good evening to you,' he said gravely. 'It's a fine night for the road.' The smell of peat smoke and of some savoury roast floated to me from the house. "
47 " (Thirty-nine steps)' was the phrase; and at its last time of use it ran—'(Thirty-nine steps, I counted them—high tide 10.17 p.m.)'. I could make nothing of that. "
48 " كان أفضل زميل فى الدنيا، لكنى وجدت أنى كنت أُسئ فهم شخصيته. "
― John Buchan , The Power House (Sir Edward Leithen, #1)
49 " We must all be fighters and strugglers, Lewie, and it is better to wear out than to rust out. It is bad to let choice things become easily familiar; for, you know, familiarity is apt to beget a proverbial offspring." The "
― John Buchan , The Half-Hearted
50 " A little thing, lasting only a second, and the odds were a thousand to one that I might have had my eyes on my cards at the time and missed it. But I didn't, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear. Some shadow lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men with full and absolute recognition. "
51 " Jock put his shoulder to the framework and the whole thing crumbled inward with a crash of glass. "Rotten as touch-wood," he said. "This place would never stand a siege. "
― John Buchan , The Free Fishers
52 " How will you deal with him?" Belses asked.Jock lifted a brawny fist and regarded it lovingly. "Knock him out-- truss him up-- whatever the Almighty permits us."Supposing he's not alone?"Oh, then, if his trusties are with him, there'll be a bonny rumpus. "
53 " We are all, even the best of us, egoists and self-deceivers, and without a little comfortable make-believe to clothe us we should freeze in the outer winds. "
― John Buchan , The Three Hostages (Richard Hannay #4)
54 " I skumringen kom mannen hennes tilbake fra heiene. Det var en mager kjempe som tok ett skritt der andre dødelige trengte tre. "
55 " Beklager så meget , sa han. Jeg er ikke helt meg selv i kveld. Saken er nemlig den at jeg er død i dette øyeblikk. "
56 " الحضارة ستدوم فقط حتى يأتى اتفاق آخر ... ضدها. "
57 " Our ignorance of the future has been wisely ordained of Heaven. For unless man were to be like God and know everything, it is better that he should know nothing. If he knows one fact only, instead of profiting by it he will assuredly land in the soup. "
― John Buchan , The Gap in the Curtain (Sir Edward Leithen #4)
58 " There was more in those eyes than any common triumph. They had been hooded like a bird of prey, and now they flamed with a hawk's pride. A white fanatic heat burned in them, and I realized for the first time the terrible thing I had been up against. This man was more than a spy; in his foul way he had been a patriot. "
59 " Only by the possession of a sense of humour am I saved from insignificance." To "
60 " Most people are a little scared at new things ... You want a bigger heart to face danger which you go out to look for, and which doesn't come to you in the ordinary way of business. Still, that's pretty much the same thing—good nerves and good health, and a natural liking for rows. "
― John Buchan , The Complete Richard Hannay: The Thirty-Nine Steps / Greenmantle / Mr Standfast